marriage

Posted by JW on March 18, 1998 at 23:32:26:

In response to unmarried men in literature, written by Miranda on March 18, 1998 at 16:18:23

] ] ... surely there must also be so many unmarried men! If that were really true, then historical documents and literature in general would be full of them, surely?

] I think this really applies to the economically disadavtaged. We rarely see these people show up in literature, except perhaps as servants but not as characters in their own right.

] This tendency not to marry really surprised me. It points out how much we (me, anyway) assume that he social customs, etc.. we glean from the literature apply to everyone. And how much we interpret the past thru our own mores.

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JW: Several factors are important: a. A general tendency to marry later than today, and often not until the child was on the way; b. an enormous servant class of unmarried men and women; c. the community reaction to bastards conditioned by the law which required the parish of the mother to provide maintenance for poor women.

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REPLIES:

• Pregnant servants and a question Constanza 16:49:10 3/19/98 (8)
  • house servants and marriage P. Bingham 18:31:18 3/19/98 (7)
    • Laurence Stone's other book P. Bingham 13:50:16 3/20/98 (6)
      • Very informative! Lesley 00:18:26 3/21/98 (0)
      • Don't appologise, Patricia; that was very interesting... Marie Bernadette 00:10:07 3/21/98 (4)
        • Lords & unexpected babies P. Bingham 18:52:35 3/21/98 (3)
          • Out of the running... Marie Bernadette 13:29:53 3/23/98 (2)
            • bastards P. Bingham 22:12:58 3/25/98 (1)
              • It still amazes me the amount of inform. U can provide :-) nfm Constanza 11:03:49 3/26/98 (0)

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